Led by William Knight's 25 points and Wendell White's 24, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix defeated the Tokyo Apache 84-72 in the bj-league on Wednesday at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2.

The Apache slipped to 0-2 under first-year coach Motofumi Aoki.

Hamamatsu used a 10-0 spurt in the third quarter to increase its lead to 61-45, and the Phoenix led by as many as 17 points in the final quarter en route to a series sweep.

Shingo Okada and Chris Mortellaro added 14 points apiece for Kazuo Nakamura's club, which joined the bj-league last season.